The commission's Feb. 13 default hearing on terminating Prospect North LLC's development rights will come more than eight years after the plan's initial presentation. Prospect North proposed a $112 million plan to build housing and commercial space south of MCC-Maple Woods Community College.

Joe Gonzales, the commission's interim executive director, said the commission could seek another developer because Prospect North faces involuntary bankruptcy. The Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition was filed in November by M&I Bank, which already had foreclosed on loans to Prospect North.

Before advertising for a new developer, Gonzales said, the commission must meet with the bank.

Attorneys for the bank and Prospect North could not be reached for comment.

The TIF Commission said Prospect North quit working on the plan 18 months ago.

Gonzales said he met Jan. 16 with Roxsen Koch, a lawyer with King Hershey PC who has represented Prospect North in its TIF request.

Before receiving the TIF Commission's endorsement in 1999 for what was called Renaissance Village, developer Edgar Barth told the Kansas City Business Journal that he wanted to build a "self-sufficient community" that would be "doing away with urban sprawl."

In 2001, the Kansas City Council approved TIF bonds that would be retired with taxes generated by the plan. Because no TIF revenue was generated, the city's general budget is repaying about $11 million in bonds that financed road improvements. Kansas City's Public Improvements Advisory Committee financed an additional $3.4 million of infrastructure. Among the road improvements the city completed are extensions of Agnes Road, Maplewoods Parkway and Northeast 82nd Street.

In 2003, the Environmental Protection Agency charged Prospect North with violating the Clean Water Act. In a 2004 consent agreement, Prospect North paid $35,217 to the EPA without admitting or denying the allegation.

The City Council approved an amended TIF plan in 2004 calling for about 200 single-family houses to be built, along with about 275,000 square feet of commercial space. Construction was to be completed in 2008.

In 2003, illness caused Barth to sell Prospect North to Kurt Degenhardt, who had worked on the plan. Steve Block of Block & Co. Inc. Realtors was an agent for Prospect North. Block said he hasn't been involved with Prospect North or talked to Degenhardt for three years and didn't know the TIF Commission wanted to terminate the developer. Barth died in 2006.

Prospect North's collapse makes it an aberration in the Northland, where the TIF Commission's latest annual report found that TIF plans captured 22 percent more taxes than had been projected through April 30.

Correction/Clarification

An earlier version of this story inaccurately described Steve Block's role with Prospect North LLC. Block was an agent for Prospect North.